On this page

1. New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

2. Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

Young people in Spain have gone from representing a third of the population to being less than a fourth part of the population, with unemployment rate that doubled during the recent economic crises, while their qualification increased as university students numbers grow, as well as the importance of Information Technologies and Communication (ICT) and the Internet. However, there are still two main areas where digital divide is still in place in Spain: socioeconomic and generational. The first concerns the lack of access to the network and the second to the distance in digital skills that increasingly separates Western adolescents from their parents and educators.

New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

The traditional editorial, discographic and film industries have undergone a serious transformation in recent decades after the rise of digitalisation. Puwerty, for example, is a festival which began in 2017 and consists of a multidisciplinary project of the The Lighted House with specific programming aimed at young people between 12 and 26 years old.

The name of the festival is a mixture of the words power and puberty. The idea is to include workshops on youth identity, a debate between young people working in the creative industries and live music. Moreover, in previous editions, one of the ramifications of the festival was the “Inbox" call for projects which seeks to promote and disseminate artistic creation among young people who innovate with their format. The selected project is granted with 500€ for production and staging in the next edition of the festival.

Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

Digital Spain Agenda 2026 is the update of the strategy launched in 2020, which followed the guidelines of the Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe 2015-2020. The first version emerged in response to the need to expand accessibility to ICTs for Spaniards, raise awareness of copyright laws and digitize cultural heritage. The new update is a roadmap for the country's digital transformation and focuses on three key dimensions: infrastructure and technology, economy and people. In terms of culture, it proposes the initiative to create the Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe Plan to strengthen the competitiveness of Spanish audiovisual production and its internationalization while attracting investors. In addition, it adds two new lines of work to promote public-private collaboration and co-governance between the State and the Autonomous Communities.

Young Technology Appropriation And Communication

The Cabueñes International Youth Meetings are one of the most important forums for meeting and debate in Spain. They are organized every year in Gijón and can be attended by young people between 18 and 35 years old, representatives of youth associations, youth councils or non-associated young people with an interest in the topics discussed; and people over 36 years old who work with youth. Among the usual topics are communication, the use that young people and organizations make of traditional media, social networks and ICTs in general, and the role of culture in youth and youth in culture.